(This story was updated at 9:45 a.m. April 28.)Millennia Housing Management Ltd., a substantial suburban-based apartment owner and operator, is taking a shot at entering the downtown Cleveland housing market with a project at the 11-story Garfield Building on Euclid Avenue near the East Fourth Street Neighborhood.Tom Yablonsky, executive director of Historic Gateway Neighborhood Development Corp., confirmed that Frank Sinito, Millennia CEO, is working on a project at the building, 1963 E. Sixth St. Yablonsky said he's been trying to get Sinito downtown for 20 years and encouraged him to size up the Garfield for a project.“He's recently decided the time is right,” Yablonsky said Tuesday, April 22.Although most of the 174 suites in the proposed project will be in former office space, Sinito said in an April 23 interview that the plan would include 10 penthouses that would be built atop the building.The two-story suites will offer a contemporary design, as historic preservation guidelines require anything new added to a building to look new.However, the building’s appearance cannot change from the street level, so the penthouses will be set back from the edge of the building. That means they will not be visible to passersby. Sinito said the top of the building will also offer a patio to serve as an amenity for residentsAccording to state corporation records, Sinito formed Garfield Historic Investment LLC on March 27. The date is significant because it is shortly before the state of Ohio's March 31 deadline for the next round of state historic preservation tax credits. Such credits are vital to financing adaptive reuse projects at landmarks.Eliot Kijewski, a senior vice president at the Cresco Cushman & Wakefield Alliance brokerage in Independence, confirmed the building no longer available because there is a purchase agreement for it in place. He is part of a Cresco team that represents the seller, Westcore Properties of San Diego, in marketing the building. Westcore put the property on the market in February.Millennia owns almost 10,000 affordable housing units in 112 properties, which ranked it as the 24th largest affordable housing owner and developer in the nation in 2013, according to the trade magazine Apartment Finance Today. The company also owns market rate properties.Sinito founded the firm in 1994; it now operates in Ohio and seven other states. In 2002, he developed Thornburg Station, a $10 million retail and office complex at 8001 Rockside Road, Valley View, next to the Ohio Canal Corridor.

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